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SternisheFan writes "From Bloomberg News: AT&T Inc.. Verizon Communications Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. are gearing up for a push to deliver video games directly to televisions, said people with knowledge of the matter, a strategy shift that poses a threat to traditional consoles such as the PlayStation, Wii and Xbox. Trials of cloud-gaming services are likely to start later this year so carriers can test and tweak the technology before wider deployments that may begin as early as 2013, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. Other carriers are aiming for 2014, the people said. If successful, Web-based games could accelerate a shift away from consoles, the industry’s main money maker for the past three decades.
“Everybody has a TV,” said Atul Bagga, a video-games analyst at Lazard Capital Markets in San Francisco. Cable and phone companies are “looking for new ways to monetize their users and gaming can be pretty compelling,” he said. By adding popular games to their TV, Internet and phone packages, carriers can offer another service to their almost 50 million digital TV subscribers. In addition to AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner Cable, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) and Cox Communications Inc. are also in talks to offer video-gaming services, the people said. They’re all looking to go beyond social games from Zynga Inc. and casual games such as “Tetris” and “Solitaire,” with technology that can deliver the most advanced action games from top publishers such as Electronic Arts Inc."Link to Original Source